If the Springboks do survive the pool stages of this Rugby World Cup they might find they are the team most accustomed to pressure when the play-offs arrive, but that should provide little comfort for coach Heyneke Meyer and his charges.
The reality is that because of their shock defeat to Japan last week, the Boks have arrived at what can almost be equated as a knock-out phase of the tournament way too quickly. It isn’t any secret that Meyer was hoping to use the Pool phase as a bleeding in process for key players who have been injured.
Duane Vermeulen said it after the World Cup squad announcement in Durban a couple of weeks ago – “We’ve done the hard yards in conditioning during this training camp, and the Pool stage should provide is with an opportunity to get match fit.”
The problem is that Brighton provided a rude awakening. The lesson from there might have been that you can’t use the World Cup to get fit for the World Cup, particularly if you are a supposed top nation that is hunted by less established rugby entities who raise their game when they play against you.
On the upside for the Boks ahead of Saturday’s second match against Samoa at Villa Park in Birmingham is the mood in the camp following last week’s disaster. It’s similar to the mood that followed the Durban upset against Argentina in August. The backs to the wall scenario sparked a solid performance and face saving win in Buenos Aires.
On the downside though there are far too many questions to be answered and it is clear that while other teams are doing what they should be doing at a World Cup, which is peaking at the right time, the Boks are some way off that point.
Vermeuelen’s return to the team is a timely one because he is the talisman around which so much can revolve for the Boks. He’s been a crucial missing ingredient for the Boks this year. But is it really optimum for the Boks to have such an important player starting his first match since June against a physical and determined team like Samoa?
If you glance through the names on the Bok team list you start to understand where the mistake might have been made in selection, and why the composition of the 31 man squad might have been a gamble from the outset. Vermeulen is not the only player who has played very little rugby lately.
Skipper Jean de Villiers has only played two full games since he was helped from the field with a serious leg injury in Cardiff last November. There was a cameo as a replacement against the World XV in Cape Town at the start of the international season, a little bit of time for Western Province in two friendly games, and then he was pitched straight into the leadership role in the last Rugby Championship match against the Pumas.
It didn’t go well for him then and it didn’t go well for his team. After another six weeks sidelined with a jaw injury, he was back to lead in the World Cup opener against Japan. With so little rugby behind him, De Villiers needed to boost his confidence, and there is a theory he may have put his own need ahead of the team need when he dictated the Bok tactics in Brighton.
Everyone, with the exception of Meyer, thought the Boks could smash the Japanese by carrying the ball, so it might have made sense in theory to maximise the running opportunities that could have put the skipper in a better psychological space.
But the Japanese were an unknown factor for the Boks, and Meyer’s theory that you had to drive them into the ground and kick them into their half was vindicated when the underdogs delivered on their promise to cut down the bigger Boks with “chop” tackles. It was tactically naïve rugby from the Boks, but there is little doubt now that those were De Villiers’ tactics and not Meyer’s. Not if we take seriously what was said before the Brighton game and again after it.
The leadership issue has been well covered this week. Meyer has chosen De Villiers to lead again, but that may be because he’s too scared to make the tough decision that he feels could lose him the change-room. It may well be that the players will have more respect for Meyer if he grows a backbone and stamps his authority, but he doesn’t appear prepared to take a risk that after all would be tantamount to admitting that he got his initial selection wrong.
So the bottom line is that De Villiers, at a stage he should probably be easing himself back after such a long lay-off, has to be at the top of his game on Saturday. And Meyer has been quite public about what will happen if he isn’t.
It’s a big ask for De Villiers, and Fourie du Preez, who has played just 20 minutes of rugby since goodness knows when, is also in a similar situation. There’s no time to get your sharpness and your match fitness back now, it just has to happen straight away or it won’t just be De Villiers going home early, but the entire squad.
They are indeed desperate times for the Boks and while it adds interest for the spectators and possibly hardens the team psychologically – that is probably debatable, we will have to wait until the game to see what impact the Japan defeat had – it is hardly ideal that the starting team is carrying so many players who could potentially be rusty.
The omission of form players, in particular Lood de Jager, also remains startling and a proper bone of contention with Bok supporters. The Free Stater’s ability to mimic the cartoon character Obelix, who had super human strength because he fell into a strengthening magic potion when he was a baby, holds more cache with many than Victor Matfield’s more subtle skills and ability to deliver the right numbers in the stats columns. (With no context or qualitative elements)
Samoa have topped all of that by throwing a curve ball with their selection. All week the Boks have been preparing to play a Samoan side that would have Tusi Pisi running the plays from flyhalf. The Samoans though have chosen Mike Stanley to wear the No 10 instead. That surprise though is small fry compared to the rest of the weight carried by the Boks into a game that now has way too much importance for a phase of the World Cup which was supposed to be a preparation for the knock-outs rather than the real thing.
TEAMS
SOUTH AFRICA: Willie le Roux, JP Pietersen, Jean de Villiers (captain), Damian de Allende, Bryan Habana, Handre Pollard, Fourie du Preez, Duane Vermeulen, Schalk Burger, Francois Louw, Victor Matfield, Eben Etzebeth, Jannie du Plessis, Adriaan Strauss, Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: Schalk Brits, Trevor Nyakane, Frans Malherbe, Lood de Jager, Siya Kolisi, Ruan Pienaar, Pat Lambie, Jesse Kriel.
SAMOA: Tim Nanai-Williams, Ken Pisi, Paul Perez, Rey Lee-lo, Alesana Tuilagi, Mike Stanley, Kahn Fotuali’i, Ofisa Treviranus (captain), Jack Lam, TJ Ioane, Iosefa Tekori, Teofilo Paulo, Anthony Perenise, Motu Matu’u, Sakaria Taulafo. Replacements: Ole Avei, Viiamu Afatia, Census Johnston, Faifili Levave, Vavae Tuilagi, Vavao Afemai, Tusi Pisi, George Pisi.
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Kick-off: 5:45pm
